L.J. Cryer won national championships at two different schools but says he would have preferred staying at one. He credits high-profile regular season games against Kansas, Alabama, and Auburn with preparing him for tournament success, and emphasizes aggressive play when matchups favor him over following a rigid game plan.
to play and things like that. Then when you're getting a bunch of DNPs sometimes and some games you're playing and some games you're not, like, it really messes with your mental. So I felt like maybe redshirting would have probably been the best for me, but even with the COVID year. So yeah, that's what I think about that.
LJ, a little bit bigger picture, but again, on the idea of potentially being the first guy to win it all at 2 different places, like, what do you think that says about this era of college athletics that something like that is possible? Is that something you'd expect that we're going to see potentially more and more often in the future?
I don't think— I mean, if someone else wins, I would hope they stay. I would hope they stay at the school. I don't wish anyone to transfer to go win a ring. Hopefully they can stick it out and win it wherever they're at. So, I mean, it's definitely cool to make history at 2 different schools, but, you know, if I could have done it at the same school, like, I would I would have preferred we done it that way. But, you know, my journey is my journey.
And yeah, that's it. LJ, there were times when this team— Coach Sampson just mentioned your 3-ball back-to-backs.
Was the game plan coming into mind?
Did you come prepared or did you just have the hot hand?
Nah, we knew some of the matchups that we wanted to attack. And whenever we got those switches, you know, It was just to go out there and be aggressive. And some of the stuff that I was doing, it wasn't really like drawn up. You know, when you get out there, you could tell who's guarding you pretty hard and who's like sagging off a little bit. So it was really just hunting matchups. And whenever I got the matchup, I was like, I'm just going to go. So, yeah.
Do you think your fight arsenal in the early term allowed you to anticipate?
Oh, yeah.
And culminated into a very good split last night?
Yeah, but not so much of the tournament. I just felt like playing in these type caliber games, like playing at Kansas in Lawrence Fieldhouse, playing earlier in the season versus Alabama and versus Auburn. Like just those type of heavyweight fight type of games have prepared me for these moments. So I wouldn't just say the tournament alone, but I feel like just all those big games. Last question.
